Author Archive: Michael Foster

The latest trade-war hype has served up a terrific opportunity for us to bag 6%+ dividends (and upside) in closed-end funds (CEFs).

Today I’m going to show you exactly where to look (hint: it’s the last place you’d expect) and reveal a CEF with serious upside in 2020. It’s set to ride this unheralded opportunity while dropping its generous 6.5%+ dividends on us.

First off, I hope your nest egg didn’t fall into this “tariff trap”:

First Shot in Trade War Takes Out Investors

That’s what the market did when President Trump announced his first tariffs on China two years ago, on solar panels and washing machines.… Read more

It’s the No. 1 retirement question: how much income do you need to quit the 9 to 5?

Today I’m going to help you find your number.

The best place to start is by asking yourself how your post-retirement lifestyle goal stacks up that of the average working American. Do you want to live lavishly or closer to the middle class?

Once you’ve answered that question, the next step is to look to this number: $33,706.

Average American Incomes

According to the Federal Reserve, that’s the average income an American worker earns, and it gives us a handy jumping-off point. This figure has been rising lately, but has stayed stable over the long haul.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you how one lucky group of investors nailed a once-in-a-lifetime shot at a huge, tax-free dividend stream and a quick 18% gain, too!

Well, not exactly “once-in-a-lifetime.” Because this opportunity is still waiting for you today—you just need to know how to tap it.

In a moment, I’ll give you the goods (including a name and ticker) on a closed-end fund (CEF) to target now. It hands you a 4.2% dividend you likely won’t have to pay a penny of federal tax on (and your payout could be exempt from state taxes, as well). 

To cut to the chase, thanks to its lucrative tax breaks, this fund’s 4.2% payout could be worth 7% or more to you today, depending on your tax bracket.… Read more

Today we’re going to talk about the biggest threat to your portfolio (and dividends!) you face in 2020.

It’s not a recession. It’s a near-irresistible human impulse—purposely amped up by the financial press—that could lock in big losses for you, or cause you to miss out on a huge gain, like the 486%+ some investors left on the table.

Let’s talk about that now. It starts with all the doom-and-gloom stories you’ve likely read about a looming market crash lately. (They’re hard to miss: you can find at least one on most major news sites every day.)

First off, don’t believe the hype: truth is, there’s a lot of data saying we aren’t anywhere near a downtick, let alone a full-blown once-in-a-lifetime collapse.… Read more

What’s does 2020 hold for your utility stocks (and closed-end funds)? Will these steady income plays hand us another round of big gains and dividends? Or is there trouble ahead?

These are reasonable questions to ask after these “boring” stocks poured on a huge—and rather “un-utility-like”—26% total return last year:

Utilities or Exploding Small Caps? Tough to Tell.

Let’s dive into three critical factors that will tell the tale for utilities in 2020. And because it’s the season for forecasts, I’ll throw in my verdict on the sector for the coming year, too, and name five utility closed-end funds (CEFs) paying huge dividends of 6.3% to 9.4%.… Read more

Think we’re stuck with pathetic dividends and sluggish growth in 2020?

I get it. Many folks I talk to see the coming year this way. Some are even selling stocks, in a doomed effort to “lock in” gains. The problem? What the heck do you do next?

Sitting in cash means watching helplessly as inflation erodes your nest egg. And dividends? Forget it! You’ll kiss those goodbye the moment you hit the “sell” button.

Here’s the good news: you’re not stuck between the pathetic sub-2% payout on regular stocks and the 0% you’ll get in cash. There’s a better way—one that pays you huge 6%+ dividends and regularly crushes stocks!… Read more

If you’ve been holding the Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (RQI)—a fund I wrote about a lot in 2019—you’ve done very well indeed. RQI has dominated, with its market-price return surging 51.9%, including gains and dividends, since the start of 2019.

So today we’re going to take a closer look at this superstar fund to see what lies ahead, and whether it’s still worthy of your cash, even with its big 2019 gains.

If you’re not familiar with RQI, it owns real estate investment trusts (REITs), such as cell-tower owners Crown Castle International (CCI) and American Tower (AMT), warehouse landlord Prologis (PLD) and data-center REIT Equinix (EQIX).… Read more

If you’ve been told it’s impossible to outperform low-cost index funds because the market’s too efficient, you’ve been misled.

The truth is, there are many funds that have been beating the stock market for years. And here’s something really surprising: there are more funds pulling off this feat now than there have been in a long time!

In fact, across ETFs, mutual funds and closed-end funds (CEFs), there are 3,594 funds that have beaten the S&P 500’s 24.3% return since the start of 2019.

So much for not beating the market!

That leads me straight into the two things I want to discuss with you today:

1. Why now is still a great time to buy, even with stocks near all-time highs, and …
2. Why you’ll give yourself better odds of beating the market, and grab far higher dividends, if you go with actively managed funds, particularly CEFs like the technology-focused fund yielding an outsized 6% now that I’ll tell you about shortly.

With the whipsawing market we saw in early December—and now a snap back to near all-time highs—now is the perfect time to talk about one of the biggest questions you’ll face as a closed-end fund (CEF) investor: how do you know when to sell a fund?

Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer—and often investors who use conventional sell signals, like a falling market price, will end up selling at the worst time.

That leads me to my cardinal rule with CEFs: it’s easier to know when to buy than when to sell. If the fund is well managed, has a strong track record, is deeply discounted and has a relatively safe dividend, it’s generally a screaming buy.… Read more

What if I told you there was a corner of the market where every single fund has turned a profit? And these amazing investments paid out a huge income stream that was entirely tax-free?

The kicker: many of these funds—including one throwing off a 4.6% dividend now (that could be worth 7% or more to you, depending on your tax bracket)—are trading at discounts to their “true” value now. I’ll name this low-risk income (and growth) play shortly.

146 Funds, 0 Losers

This story starts with municipal bonds, which are issued by cities, counties and states to fund buildings, roads and hospitals.… Read more